It’s so important to give kids power when you can. The best way to empower them is to give them jobs in which they can feel and demonstrate they are capable of doing “hard things.”
Katherine had just turned 3 and Caroline was about to turn 2 when Rebecca was born. Having closely spaced siblings meant my hands were literally full. Rebecca was no different than her sisters when it came to super long nursing sessions. This means I spent a lot of time on the couch nursing and the other 2 girls had a lot of time roaming free and asking for things they needed and I couldn’t get them at the moment.
It was around this time I was giving the girls some new jobs to do. Primarily, I was trying to give them responsibility to help make them feel powerful, but I also needed a way to make the girls more independent.
That’s how I decided to do this one Simple Solution for storing kid plates and cups:
Store kid plates and cups where they can reach them without help.
When the girls wanted a snack or a drink, I wasn’t always available to get it. We had been keeping our kid plates and cups in an upper cabinet they couldn’t reach. I decided to empty out the 2 cabinets beneath our kitchen island and place all of our kid plates, bowls, and cups there.
This allows kids to get their own plate and cup when it’s time to get a snack or set the table. It also makes it easier for kids to help put them away when the dishwasher gets emptied.
Six years later and our kid plates and cups are still underneath the island. Even though our girls are older, it’s still hard for them to reach the upper cabinets so I suspect they’ll stay there for a while longer.
Do you store your kid plates and cups in a different place?
–k
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